Season 2003-2004

Fish Stocks:
Last season saw the clubs first attempt at rearing and growing on small Carp. In November 2002 the club purchased 1000 small Carp of around 1oz in weight and successfully managed to grow them on in rearing tanks to around half a pound in weight over 6 months and then introduced them into Surmans lake in June
2003. In February 2003, 175 Skimmer Bream of around 6- 8oz and 150 Tench of around half a pound were also
stocked into Surmans Lake. States Lagoon also saw a good level of stocking at the beginning of 2003 with 2000 5-6oz Skimmer Bream, tens of thousands of Roach and 108 3-4lb hard fighting Wild Carp.
All fish being stocked into the lakes have been health checked by the Environment Agency to ensure that they are fit and healthy fish and that they will not have any negative effects on our existing fish stocks. We are happy to say that all stocking seems to have
been successful with no fish deaths being reported.

Purchases :
In October 2003 the club purchased a "scary man" (no not Sam) to attempt to deter Cormorants from fishing on the lakes. The "scary man" is a 6ft orange inflatable man that pops up and down and sounds an alarm at preset times throughout the day. The "scary man" appears to have done the job that it was purchased for and has also successfully managed to scare a few crack of dawn anglers as they set up their tackle.
Realising the rearing tanks potential after this seasons success the club has renovated the tanks and invested heavily in brand new state of the art equipment. The tanks now seem to be running perfectly and we are now managing to maintain a stable temperature of around 25 degrees C, this means that the fish feed all year and all day long rapidly putting on weight. We currently have 1000 Carp in the tanks that we bought in November at 1/2oz and by June-July those fish should be around 1-1 and a half pounds in weight. To give you some idea of what this means to the club these 1/2oz fish that we bought in November cost the
club £650. If the club wanted to buy 1000 1-1 and a half pound fish it would have cost us around £5000- £6000. This means that we have more money left to stock more fish.

Maintenance :
Throughout the season, there has been lots of general maintenance going on around the lakes by working parties. Listed below are some of the main tasks that were completed:
Strimming and grass cutting
Track and car park around States Lagoon laid with road chippings
Landscaping
Extension, renovation and upgrade to rearing tanks and building.
Trees around Bents Pool have been given a drastic trim.

Season 2004-2005

What are the plans for the future?

Stocking:
The club has ordered 2000 more 6-8oz Skimmer Bream and 400 3-4lb Bream that will be stocked into States Lagoon in March 2004. The club also has 1000-2000 Skimmer Bream that were purchased in 2001 and were put into a farm pond to grow on, these
fish will also be moved to States Lagoon later on in the season. The committee is also looking into the possibility of stocking the Lagoon further with other silver fish such as Chub, Tench and Roach.
Surmans Lake will be stocked in June/July with the 1000 carp that are being grown on in the rearing tanks, if they continue to grow at the rate that they have been they should quite easily be 1-1 and a half pounds when they are stocked.
Electro fishing will be taking place on Bents pool and Surmans Lake in March 2004 and it is planned to move any Carp over 7-8lb from Surmans and put them into Bents, it is also planned to move any carp over 16-18lb from Bents and to put them into Specimen lake. All other fish will stay where they are.
As you can probably tell the plan is to have States Lagoon as a mainly silver fish venue, Surmans Lake as a small carp venue, Bents Pool as a medium/large carp venue and Specimen as its name would suggest will continue to be a big fish water.

Maintenance:
The club will continue to hold working parties on a regular basis and continue to maintain the clubs
waters as much as is possible. The committee would like to remind the club members that Newland A.C. is a club and not a commercial fishery, therefore, any work done on the lake is primarily done by unpaid volunteers that are prepared to put in a little time and effort in order to continue to make the fishing comfortable and enjoyable for club members. Last seasons turnout for working parties would at best be described as poor. We have listed below the planned dates for working parties for this season, so if you can free up some time to help your club to improve itself we would be very grateful. Please call Les Wood on 01993 771371 or Justin Bury on 01865 882303 and let them know what dates you can come and help.

Planned working parties:
Summer 2004 dates still to be arranged so call for details
Every other Sunday through November December and January

Some of the planned work to be carried out this year:
Toilets to be erected on States Lagoon.
Bottom car park between Bents and Specimen to be laid with road chippings
Norfolk reeds around States lagoon to be cut back and killed to prevent future growth.
Existing swims on all waters are to be maintained and where necessary new ones built.
Timber platforms to be built around Specimen lake
Trees around Surmans and Specimen to be cut down.
Some of those jobs will also require skilled tradesmen to complete i.e. builders, carpenters, tree surgeons, etc so give us a call if you are prepared to help out.

River fishing:
Don.t forget that Newland A.C. also has a great stretch of the River Windrush (see your club book for details) The River fished very well last year producing some huge bags of Chub, Dace, Roach and Barbel.
If you have never fished the river Windrush you really do not know what you are missing.
Last year the club lost the fishing rights to a stretch of the river Thames at Chimney but we are doing our best to regain those rights.

Match Fishing:
The club regularly holds matches throughout the season on both club waters and at other venues (see membership card for venues and dates). The matches are held for club members only and are always great fun. If you fancy having a go at match fishing, please
give the match Secretary a call.